The present invention relates to a tool for use with a computer, in general, and, more particularly, to a tool that relates and organizes a succession of resources (e.g., World Wide Web pages, etc.) that are retrieved by a computer.
The World Wide Web has recently emerged as an unparalleled source of information and entertainment, and its ease-of-use has spurred many people to routinely use a computer who had never done so before. One of the features of the Web that makes it so powerful and user-friendly is the ubiquity of embedded hyperlinks that enable a Web page to reference another page, and a user to retrieve the referenced page by merely clicking on its reference in the referring page. Therefore, the incorporation of hyperlinks into Web pages enables, and almost compels, a user to successively retrieve one Web page after another and another and another.
Sometimes a user""s browsing is purposefulxe2x80x94for example, the user desires to locate a vendor of 18th century porcelainxe2x80x94and sometimes the browsing is aimless. Although aimless browsing may seem odd, the Web is ideally suited for it and many users experience a great deal of joy in finding fascinating and useful resources that they didn""t even know existed. This pleasure is akin to that experienced by a shopper at an antique store, rummage sale or flea market who discovers a valuable item that is unrecognized as such.
But whether the browsing is purposeful or aimless, the fact that the content of the Web is created by autonomous entities and without a cohesive, unifying structure causes the process of browsing to be analogous to that of traversing a maze. In browsing the Web, as in traversing a maze, a user commonly explores a series of Web pages until it either yields fruit or appears fruitless, and then backtracks to a familiar page to set out in a new direction. And for the same reason that people get lost and disoriented in a labyrinth, so too users get lost and disoriented in browsing the Web. Although the disorientation in browsing the Web is not strictly spatial, it has two adverse effects on the user.
First, the disorientation hampers the user""s sense of which Web pages have and which have not been explored, which degrades the user""s ability to browse efficiently. Although the notion of efficiency may only appear important to those users who browse purposefully, even a user who browses aimlessly doesn""t want to inadvertently retrieve the same uninteresting Web page two or three or four times any more than a shopper desires to visit the same rummage sale twice in one day. Therefore, the need exists for a mechanism that improves a user""s efficiency in browsing the Web.
Second, the disorientation hamper""s the users ability to assimilate useful and interesting information garnered from disparate Web pages. As in traditional learning, it is much harder to interrelate and remember facts whose connection is unclear, and much easier to learn them when a framework is presented. Therefore, the need exists for a mechanism that improves a user""s ability to assimilate, interrelate, and remember useful and interesting information garnered from the Web.
The present invention is a tool that assists a user to assimilate, interrelate, and remember a succession of resources that are retrieved by a computer under the direction of the user. In particular, some embodiments of the present invention are ideal for assisting users in browsing the World Wide Web, but are equally well-suited to users who retrieve a variety of tangible and intangible resources (e.g., laboratories samples, inventory, database entries, etc.) with the assistance of a computer.
To this end, the illustrative embodiment of the present invention monitors the retrieval of a succession of resources by a computer under the direction of a user, records the address of each resource and displays a graph of nodes and edges representing the resources and an indication of the order in which they were retrieved. For example, the graph of nodes can assist the user to understand which resources have been explored, which have not, which contain useful leads, which are fruitless, which are interesting, etc. By drawing each retrieved resource as a node in a graph, the illustrative embodiment graphically ties each retrieved resource to its predecessor(s) and successors, which helps the user assimilate, interrelate and remember the resources that were retrieved.
Furthermore, a salient characteristic of the illustrative embodiment is that it enables the user to personalize the information associated with each node, which assists the user in: (1) remembering what the content of each resource is, and (2) relating resources with similar traits. Although the fact that the illustrative embodiment enables a user to personalize the information associated with each node may appear trivial, its subtlety should not be misinterpreted for it is an aspect of the present invention that has a profound effect on effectiveness and that propels a tool that is merely useful into a tool that is nearly indispensable.
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention comprises: recording a first address of a first resource that is retrieved by a computer; receiving a first assigned mnemonic from a user to associate with said first resource; recording a second address of a second resource that is retrieved by said computer; receiving a second assigned mnemonic from said user to associate with said second resource; and displaying on a graphical user interface a graph comprising a first node that exhibits said first assigned mnemonic, a second node that exhibits said second assigned mnemonic and a first edge from said first node to said second node.